Meet Cuba’s young(er) generation

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If you were were looking for a hard number to sum up the state of Cuba’s political leadership, try 70. That’s the average age of Raúl Castro and the six vice presidents appointed this past weekend. The acension of these longtime Raúlistas to the top spots in Cuba’s government is as good an indication of any that Raúl has no immediate plans for major reform. In a conference call organized by the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American studies, Senior Research Associate Brian Latell characterized Cuba’s new government as a “gerontocracy… old men dealing with the possibility of an upheaval and instability among the younger generation of Cubans.”

His colleague, University of Miami Assistant Provost Andy Gomez, said his interviews with young Cubans in recent days indicated a disturbing trend of authorities arresting youths on trumped up charges, possibly to prevent major demonstrations. Gomez worries that unless major reforms are undertaken soon, we might soon see a major outward migration of young Cubans to the United States and elsewhere:

I do think that we might see a movement of this young generation trying to leave the island in any possible direction. My concerns here are multiple. First, the United States is in the process of a presidential election. I don’t think that this administration or any of the candidates want to deal with a mass migration… The current infrastructure in the state of Florida is not prepared to deal with such a large migration. The state of Florida and the Miami-Dade public schools have [budget] shortfalls. We are just not prepared. This could be a problem for the United States like we haven’t seen before.  

It’s also unlikely to help alleviate the already toxic state of the U.S. immigration debate.